Exercises
- Classify the following according to clause
type, and say what kind of speech act they
would most likely be used to perfonn.
i Please tum the light on.
ii I advise you to accept their offe r.
iii I advised her to accept their offe r.
iv Can you close that door please.
v Yo u're leaving already?
vi Where shall I put my coat?
vii What a senseless waste of human life it
was.
viii Have a nice day.
ix Aren 't we lucky!
x Allow me to congratulate you.
- Fonn open interrogatives from the follow
ing declaratives, replacing the underlined
phrase with a corresponding interrogative
phrase such as who, what, when, etc.
i She said something to them.
ii Someone has taken my umbrella.
iii He sold his car to someone.
iv He thinks they 'll appoint someone.
v They left early fo r some reason.
vi Yo u told her I was going somewhere.
vii Yo u first suspected he was the
murderer at some time.
viii Things have changed fo r you �
way since last year.
ix Yo u think someone has the most
influence with these people.
x We can get somebody to clear up this
mess.
- Attach the proper reverse polarity tags to
the following declaratives.
i Yo u don 't know where to put it.
ii She believes everything you say.
Exercises 173
iii Everyone thought it was impossible.
iv They used to live in Baltimore.
v There is no future fo r us.
- Interrogative tags can also be attached to
imperative clauses, as in Don't tell anyone,
will you? What tags could naturally be
added to the following? (Where both
reversed and constant polarity tags can be
used, give them both, and comment on any
difference between them.)
i Give this letter to Angela.
ii Don't show the letter to Angela.
iii Ta ke your fe et off the sofa.
iv Let's take a break.
v Let's not waste any more time.
- The following clauses are given without
any final punctuation mark to avoid preju
dicing things, so they don't confonn to
nonnal written English. For each one, say
whether it is (a) an open interrogative;
(b) an exclamative; or (c) ambiguous
between open interrogative and exclamative.
If your answer is (a) or (b), explain what
grammatical factors make the clause unam
biguous. If your answer is (c), comment on
the difference in meaning.
i Who thinks it was awesome
ii How much remains to be done
iii How did you convince them
iv What a disappointment it was
v How oft en have I told you to lock up
vi What idiot devised this plan
vii Who cares about your stupid project
viii What kind of fo ol do you take me fo r
ix How geeky I look in that propeller hat
x Why don 't you give them a chance
